PEEU for white paper on increasing accidental deaths

Excelsior Correspondent

KATHUA, Mar 2: Provin-cial Electric Employees Union (PEEU) today accused the authorities’ callousness for the increasing deaths of linemen and other workers in the State.
Talking to reporters here the provincial president of the Union, P C Sharma along with district president Kathua Divender Sharma, Hardarshan Singh Sub District president, Hiranagar and Pawan Kumar general secretary Central body demanded a white paper be issued on various points raised by Union which it considers are main cause for electricity shocks and increasing deaths of linemen and other workers while on duty.
He wanted to know from the authorities that what are the main reasons for electric shocks of the workers especially the linemen while working on electricity lines.
He said the authorities through a white paper should assign the reasons for the same whether death is caused due to their negligence, lack of safety tools and implements, due to mismanagement of the administration or an individual, whether releasing the power after shutdown without proper information.
Sharma further wanted to know has the administration issued any orders asking the linemen and other workers not to go for any maintenance work without the instructions of the superiors, whether special training courses are held to impart training to linemen, whether Department has taken any safety measures for PDD employees especially executive staff.
The Union leaders also wanted to know what steps the Department has taken to reduce the accidental death rates of linemen or other field workers. Besides, it also wanted to know whether the employees who died till date have been given proper designation, proper grade as per the assignments, whether change-overs are installed on lines feeding the industries like stone crushers etc, whether the workers have been covered under any insurance cover by the Department, whether Drop Out Fuse (DOF) and Gang Operating Device (GOD) sets have been installed for tripping power during incident and electricity shocks.
The Union leaders also demanded regularization of daily wagers and amendments in Service Recruitment rules of PDD 381 of 1981.